LOST TREASURE HUNTER

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Welcome to the Lost Treasure Hunter made for TV Adventure Mini Series.

This is a show about Extreme Treasure Hunting.

My name is John Grillo "JP" and I am a Professional Treasure Hunter and Antiquities Recovery Specialist.

As a young boy growing up in the Beautiful and Rustic mining town of Paradise California, I was fascinated by the lore of finding gold and mines long lost by the Spanish and the miners of the day.

At age 14 I borrowed an old VLF metal detector from a friend and I have been hooked ever since.

Being a Professional Treasure Hunter has led to a lifetime of research, not only with being a Private Investigator and a History Detective, but also with keeping up with the newest and latest technologies of the modern day.

We will try to prove or disprove a Lost Treasure story or Legend.

Lost Treasure Hunter's goal is to re-write history using solid research along with state of the art Ground Penetrating Radar, Aerial Infrared Photography, Thermal Imaging , U.S.Geological Survey Topographical Maps and by utilizing various NASA Landsat programs.

Lost Treasure Hunter also contracts itself out to Insurance Companies, Private Parties or Individuals for research or recovery.

Fee's are based on a 50/50 split of recovered items on property owned by the individual or on property that is claimable. Fee's are also based on a finder's fee if said items have been stolen or based on a daily set research fee agreement.

Lost Treasure Hunter also contracts to Local, State or Military for projects that require our equipment or expertise for recovery. Including but not limited to expert witness testimony. Contact information below.

Today's technologies allows us to see into the ground up to 61 meters (200 feet) for both ferrous and non ferrous materials. This equipment can be used from a walking pace to speeds up to 22 miles per hour using an ATV or a snowmobile with pin point accuracy.

Ground Penetrating Radar operates by transmitting pulses of ultra high frequency radio waves (microwave electromagnetic energy) down into the ground through a transducer (also called an antenna). The transmitted energy is reflected from various buried objects or distinct contacts between different earth materials. The antenna then receives the reflected waves and stores them in the digital control unit where they are immediately processed.
Remote sensing techniques have proven to be very useful in the search for archaeological sites. Techniques such as Aerial Photography, Color-Infrared Photography, Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanning (TIMS) and Radar Imaging have successfully been used to locate potential archaeological sites and add questions to known sites.

The use of False-Color Infrared Photography has increased the versatility of aerial photography and the development of photogrammetry allows the accurate mapping of both archaeological and geographical information. Recordings of thermographic and radar images complements photographic methods. Aerial Photography has proved to be one of the most successful methods of discovering archaeological sites. Large areas of ground can be covered quickly and the ground plan of a new site can be plotted from the photographs.

False-Color Infrared Photography is a technique of aerial photography used in archaeology especially in the Americas. Infra-red film reacts to the varying water absorption qualities of different features, thus allowing changes in vegetation, the occurrence of buried features filled with disturbed soil and the presence of otherwise invisible roadways to be detected. The false color refers to the accentuation of specific features in red, pink, yellow, blue etc., which emphasize the contrasts but which are not the true colors of the features. Also, this technique often achieves greater resolution than conventional photography because the wavelengths are unaffected by atmospheric haze.

Using some of the applied applications of scientific,investigative and analytical methods listed above we can find an original wagon trail, lost mine shaft/man made disturbance or road that can be several hundred years old and not visible to the naked eye.

False Color Infrared Photograph showing suspected road

Wagon and horse trails. Original Spanish Trail

Once a location has been gridded and scanned in real time, the information is than converted into a 3D image with GPS interface and the entire scan is exported on to Google maps as a ground overlay (KLM) point by point into Google Earth. This data can be used on the spot or for later excavation and discovery.

Making a television show about Extreme Treasure Hunting seemed like a fun and rewarding thing to undertake.

Our team consist of Professional Treasure Hunters and Adventurer's like myself, along with all things legal.

We will have experts in the fields of Geology, Historian, Archaeologist and Native American along with local officials, if needed, on site at all times.

Any Treasures found will be subject to all Antiquities laws and will eventually end up in a museum for all to enjoy.

The reason for protecting and preserving antiquities is to ensure that we can study and understand our fore bearers, especially when those physical antiquities are the only link we have.

If you read the Original 1906 law, it was only intended to protect Native American sites, but that is no longer the case.

It is illegal to recover anything made over 50 years old from Federal land or from the jurisdiction of any state that bases its laws on the US law, whether you get charged with the crime or not.

*Note: Antiquities laws do not apply when recovering items on private property with the consent of the owner. Any items found are at the discretion of the parties involved.

The 1979 Archaeological Act specifically stated that anything under 100 years old was okay to take. However BLM and Forest Service interpreted it to be 50 years old.

Lost Treasure Hunter does not want the treasure or the headache, we just want to find it and give it back to the world to study.

International laws differ greatly so we will have experts in their fields when needed when we do projects in other countries.

We will be teaching the viewer how to research and locate things long forgotten. We will do our best to educate the viewer as much as possible, but what the viewer does with this information is not the responsibility of Lost Treasure Hunter.

Lost Spanish mines, train and stagecoach robberies, and treasure tales have been passed down from generation to generation and most of the time the story gets bigger and more outrageous as the new storyteller puts his own unique spin on it.

Lost Treasure Hunter starts all research projects from the original first printed story/newspaper. Lost Treasure Hunter has an extensive library of archived and out of print material. If we don't have it,we know how to find it.

Most everything else printed after the original story is basically Pure Bullshit and contrived thinking with the intent of selling stories and events, not solving them.

Lost Treasure Hunter will find and research a "lost mine or treasure tale" and then go on the hunt.

For most stories or legends someone started out at point A and ended up at point B, but they could never retrace their steps because of inclimate weather, dehydration or just plain bad planning, memory or luck.

Or when a train or stagecoach was robbed at point A and the robbers were killed a few miles later at point B and the loot was never recovered.

Lost Treasure Hunter now has the ability to retrace those steps.

It also has to be noted that even though our equipment will see several hundred feet into the earth, that most objects buried (unless it's a supported mine shaft, cave or an ore vein) are less than 6 feet deep.

The physics of digging a hole beyond six feet indicates that the hole without a support system will cave in on itself. That is one reason that graves are only six feet deep.

This is also the main reason Prospectors in the 1700 and 1800's always built "cribs" when digging beyond 6 feet.

Back in the days of robbing trains and stagecoaches or anything else for that matter, would more than likely have had the robbers digging a shallow to moderate hole in advance to stash their cache in temporarily until the heat was off of them. They would also want to have easy retrieval when they came back to get it. It would not have been practical for them to be trying to fill in a 6-10 foot hole or to try to dig one with a posse on their heels. One must also consider the weight of the gold or silver or other items in the robbery.

Most large amounts of gold and silver that were in route were for payroll (Railroad or Civil War) or for shipment to the mints for processing.

For instance if $100,000 dollars worth of gold was stolen, that would break down into more than likely a one ounce $20 dollar gold piece, that times 5000 coins would equal $100,000 and 5000 ounces. That would be around 416 extra pounds to be carrying, plus it's bulk.

Now if the Gold or Silver was in bars or nuggets/dust that number goes up dramatically.

$100,000 of raw gold would now weigh over 8,300 pounds.

The weight is easy to figure because the price of Gold didn't really change that much.

In 1792 Alexander Hamilton, first U.S. Secretary of Treasury under President George Washington, priced the American dollar at 24 ¾ grains of gold (not quite 1/20 of an ounce, making its price $19.39.)This set the “gold standard.” The price of gold remained approximately $20 per ounce until February 1934, a period of 142 years.

If one wanted to get technical, gold and other precious metals are usually weighed in the Troy weight system. The system used in the US is called the avoirdupois weight system or (avdp) where sixteen ounces equals one pound. A pound (avdp) is equal to 1.21528338 Troy pounds. One Troy ounce of gold weighs 1.0971377 ounce (avdp) and there are 12 Troy ounces in one Troy pound and only 0.822853347 pounds (avdp) in a Troy pound.

Basically 12 oz. = one pound.....One troy pound.

Gold is not the most valuable metal, but it is extremely valuable and probably the most sought after of all the valuable metals found on earth.

A single cubic foot of gold will weigh approximately 548.18 Kilograms or 1,206 pounds. A cubic foot doesn't seem like much when you consider that a cubic foot is only 12 inches by 12 inches by 12 inches.

At today’s market exchange value, that same cubic foot of pure gold would be worth in the neighborhood of 10 million dollars.

Gold has a specific gravity of 19.3, meaning that it is 19.3 times heavier than water.

A horse loaded down with the rider and the extra weight was not going to get very far very fast.

Newspaper archives gives us date, time and location.

Most items hid will be shallow and within a few miles of the original heist location.

Using logic and technology Lost Treasure Hunter believes we will succeed in some of our adventures.

The viewer has to also keep an open mind with respect that some of these stories were and are just that..... Stories.

Our resource's are literally endless. From Wells, Fargo & Co's Express "Train Robbery" Ledger, 260 pages,The Library Of Congress's countless original maps and documented stories, to the mountains of Treasure books and magazines that have been published over the last 100 plus years.

Not to mention the thousands of museums, library's and college's all over the country and the world with their own research departments, local legends and newspaper archives.

No adventure will be denied.

From Alaska to Death Valley, to the Mayan Mountains in Belize,to the Jungles of Guatemala and the Amazon Jungles of South America.

We will travel in some of the harshest landscapes in the country and the world.

Exploring caves, old mines, Spanish Death Traps, Homesteads and privy's.

Repelling into a waterfall or into caverns to see what's behind it or in it, maybe El Dorado .....?

Sometimes if you want to find something that has eluded man for years / centuries, you have to go were no man would ever go.

You have to mindset yourself like the person that had no fear and that was hiding something of great value or of great importance.

Parachuting into remote locations when needed.

No problem.

Working Florida's Treasure Coast during a Hurricane is defiantly on the list.

With documented wreck locations with beach scatter patterns including GPS coordinates below, the sky's pretty much the limit on this one.

Read the information presented in the pictures above closely.

Lost Treasure Hunter has a near complete library of all documented shipwrecks and their registered cargo on the planet.

The Spanish Fleet of 1715 that went down in this area was well documented. The 11 ships registered cargo records show that there were over 14,000,000 Pesos of precious metals, emeralds, and jewelry that were lost in the storm, along with almost a thousand lives.

At best, maybe half of this treasure has ever been recovered.

There is a 60 mile stretch of the Atlantic coastline from St. Lucie Inlet to the Sebastian Inlet that still produces coins and other artifacts on a daily bases during the right tide cycle.

One of Lost Treasure Hunter's projects will be to pre-map the bedrock under beaches we know have produced Gold and Silver Doubloons and other artifacts in the past and then work those areas during a major storm.

Collectors pay in upwards of $5,000 each for these coins.

Using Real Time GPS, Pulse Induction and Landsat Projection Mapping from the actual wreck sites to the coast line, we will know exact locations to work during a storm when up to 15 feet of sand will be temporally displaced along the shoreline.

This type of detecting is not for the average person. Hurricane detecting borders on stupidity, crazy or just pure genius. I haven't yet figured out which one?

As 20 foot plus waves are pounding away at the beach, it makes a "cut" each time it hits the shoreline. As the wave is recessing back out building itself for another wave, it takes the sand from the cut with it.

* Note the pier in the background. This is the actual shoreline we are talking about to explore.

Lost Treasure Hunter will time the wave intervals and jump down into the cut and will work it briefly with waterproof detection equipment before the next wave hits, climbing back out using ropes. One can see where that can all go very wrong, very quickly.

By using Landsat Projection Mapping and Ground Penetrating Radar with 3D imagining software we will already know what is sitting on or above the bedrock, how deep it is and it's exact GPS coordinates for later retrieval. Digging a 15-20 hole on any beach is illegal and not safe so we will have to wait for the storm to retrieve items we know are there.

We have sites and leads all over the world worth exploring and investigating but, one in particular that has haunted me for years is a site off of the California Coast in the Santa Barbara area that produces old coins, gold/silver jewelry and Air Force medals and pins as well as brass nails from a shipwreck only during a major storm during a negative low tide. We will try to unravel that mystery as well.

We will make every safety effort required so as to not give the viewer a false representation of the hazards if he/she should want to go on such an adventure themselves.

We will also try to educate the viewer on the laws and permissions involved when undertaking a project.

Federal lands are managed by a federal government agency: the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), National Park Service, Bureau of Reclamation, Department of Defense, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or The Bureau of Indian Affairs.

State lands are mostly managed by the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (Trust Lands).

Private lands are held by private owners (including local governments and Indian tribes).

You can't work on Indian Reservations or on or near National or Historical Landmarks unless you can obtain special permits and permission from local or Federal agencies.

Antiquity laws are different when working on private property with the land owner.

We will teach the viewer how to determine ownership of the land they intend to search on by consulting surface-management-status maps (sold by various agencies and outlets including the UGS and BLM).

We will also show the viewer how to stake a legal mining claim if they should discover an ore body threw the BLM or their local agency.

All mining claims are subject to yearly fee's and maintenance assessment work. When these claims are abandoned or they lapse in payment, they are now open to anyone that wants to claim them, regardless of the work someone else has put into them.

We will show the viewer how to locate these claims at their local level.

One of the major advantages a person has using today's technologies with regards to finding an ore vein from an abandoned mine is that all one has to do is to locate a mine shaft that they can walk above (up to 200 feet below them) and then scan the area from the shaft opening to the end of the mine.

Ground Penetrating Radar will show you where the mine ends and how deep it is.

It will also show you the ore vein in real time and how deep it is.

More than likely a gossan was originally exposed and worked. Using crude tools of the day and dim light, the probability that the ore vein-let was not
followed correctly is great.

If one was to locate a new vein or the main vein, an educated decision can be made to stake a new mining claim and re-support sections of the original mine up to where the vein was lost or to go in from a completely different angle or location.

Angle, depth, and direction of vein not followed by the original prospectors is now exposed.

Most mining claims cost under a $100 per year with maybe 40 hours of assessment work to be done per year, depending on the size of the claim.

Ground Penetrating Radar can also detect fossils as seen in the photograph below.

Any fossil finds by Lost Treasure Hunter will be given to the State Paleontologist or other paleontology staff at the UGS or that countries agency.

We will not try to excavate any fossil finds.

Many fossil finds end up in private collections, depriving the public and scientists of vital opportunities for research, education, and display.

This show will of course be edited to cram in as much of the story as possible but it will not be contrived or falsified.

We either find what were looking for or we don't.

Lost Treasure Hunter doesn't plan on keeping anything that is found, so we don't care either way.

Again, our goal is to find the truth, treasure or both.

We're also not going to waste the viewers time like other shows that repeat parts of the show throughout the show. If you miss something, you'll have to rewind your DVR.

We will also be interacting with the Viewer by way of Facebook and Twitter, etc...

We will take on challenges from small towns across America (and the world) that are trying to put closure to a Lost Treasure or Legend. Anything found will go to that town's local or city museum or The Smithsonian.

Let the Adventure Begin!

JP Grillo

Now go to top left corner of website and double click on "PROJECTS OF INTEREST" to see an actual treasure hunt in progress and how to do it yourself.